If you're lucky enough to have a spare bedroom, you might have spent a sizeable amount of time and brainpower wondering what to do with it. 

Office? Bedroom? Gym? Playroom? Laundry room? Dumping ground for stuff that needs to be put away?

Or maybe all of the above! 

I’m going to skip right past the home office because I’ve covered it in the past; and even assuming you do use your space as a home office, that doesn’t mean that’s all it has to be used for — when work is done the spare room still has plenty to offer. There are endless options so here are some of my favourites and how to go about achieving them.

First things first, you probably want a spare bed in there. If you’re low on space then a permanent bed is a bit of a waste, so you’ll likely want something that can be put away easily. The classic sofa bed is one option and we’ll start there, but perhaps a sofa isn’t what you need in that room, in which case there are other great solutions out there.

If you like the idea of a couch in the room then a sofa bed is for you. The key things to look for first are size, and which way it folds out. Sofa beds are the same size as standard mattresses usually — for small spaces consider a four-foot “small double” which can fit two people without taking up too much space. 

Which way it folds out is crucial — most standard sofa beds pull out such that the width of the couch becomes the top of the bed, and therefore the length of the bed stretches out in front of the couch. 

Ask yourself if this works for your space — if not, you can consider a click-clack sofa bed. This is where the upright part of the couch folds back to form a flatbed, and so in this case the width of the couch becomes the long side of the bed. No matter which sofa bed style you go for, in a small space I recommend getting one with no arms. 

If you’re not spending much time on the couch then arms are unnecessary and removing them will save you lots of space!

Murphy beds, or wall beds, are those beds that fold up against the wall when not in use, and they have gotten quite sophisticated in recent years.

 This is a great option if your small spare room is used as a home office because many Murphy beds now offer a desk and/or bookshelves at the back of the bed when folded up. 

Murphy beds come in a range of sizes including bunk beds! Have a look at bbtfurniture.ie or wallbeds.ie for a full range.

A staple of many student rooms across Europe, an elevated bed is a super option for both spare rooms and children’s rooms — or really any bedroom where extra space is required. 

Elevated beds sit high on a platform, and that frees up the space underneath for any number of uses — think of bunk beds without the bottom bunk. 

This space would be ideal for a child or teen’s desk and bookshelves, or a playspace, or clothes storage. If your spare bed is used frequently, an elevated bed means you don’t have to keep dragging it out and putting it away, while still getting the benefit of freed up space.

I love practising my piano and trying (and failing) to get halfway decent at the ukulele, but let’s be honest — nobody wants to hear that. If you’re living with others, turning your spare room into the music room is a great way to encourage practice at an audibly safe distance. 

Most instruments don’t take up much space and require little more than a stool and a music stand. In my case, as a piano player, I had to get creative and commissioned a desk from Borien Studio which has a lift-up top that can fit a keyboard underneath. 

I love how lifting the lid on my desk transforms the room from office to music room and gets me out of work mode! Consider similar options for storing other instruments — there is plenty of usable storage space underneath a desk.

If you live with others, soundproofing the spare room might be a good idea, especially if someone likes to practice late into the night. As a DIY option, covering the walls with soft fabrics such as curtains or tapestries goes some way towards blocking out sound. 

Bookcases against the walls also work well, and carpet or rugs will help absorb sound. In the mid-range, Ikea has a range of sound-dampening wall panels that look quite nice. In the professional range, sound-proofing panels are available — usually in foam rubber, polyester fibre, or cork (which I personally love the look of and could double as a notice board in a home office).

If you’re a clothes lover, what could be more luxurious than a walk-in wardrobe with all your clothes on display! I’ve covered open wardrobe solutions in a previous article, my favourites being the Elfa system or the Ikea Boaxel. Both options are very easy to install and come with a range of modular options to create the perfect wardrobe for you.

Other spare room uses I’ve considered but not detailed in this article:

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